X-Com's Finest (An X-Com 2 play through)

Operation Dying Mask

Pritchett banged her head against the desk. She'd already BEEN through this briefing. The dull THUD, THUD, THUD was enough to silence the droning of the Commander and give her some peace. In fact, the droning had stopped completely. Her solution had worked! Pritchett looked up to see everyone staring at her. Nonplussed, she looked back. "What? Are we ready?"

The Commander just looked back at her. "I was just getting to the departure scenarios." Pritchett groaned and began beating her head against the desk again....

After what seemed like hours later, the Commander finally dismissed the squad for prep. Pritchett's forehead was red and bruised, but there was a smile on her face. She was about to go shoot something.

As everyone left, the Van Dyke family stayed behind, waiting for a chance to talk with the Commander.

"Sir, can we have a word?"

The Commander finished picking up his briefing materials, taking his time, then turned and waited.

When Gunner Van Dyke finally had the Commander's full attention, she began, "We really have no idea who you're talking about in these briefings. Why don't you call us by our first names?"

The Commander didn't hesitate. "I can't call you by your first names. We all know you're probably all going to die, and I can't afford to get emotionally attached to soldiers I'll likely never see again. By using made up names, you're nothing more than a tool to me." He paused for just a second, "Is there anything else?" The pair just stood there, slightly slack-jawed at the business like way he had just foretold their imminent deaths.

Finally, Gunner Van Dyke responded, "Well, can you at least keep it consistent? You call us by all kinds of different names and none of us know who you're talking about!"

The Commander sighed. He had an alien spacecraft to manage, a crew to supply, a battle plan to supervise, and soldiers were confused about what he called them?!?

"Fine."

He pointed at the only male of the trio, "You. Ranger Van Dyke"
He pointed to his sister standing right next to him, "You. Gunner Van Dyke"
He looked them both over just briefly, "Your younger sister, the one who likes blowing things up, Bomber Van Dyke. Now get out of here."

As the duo left, the Commander just shook his head and moved on to the next idiotic problem. "Now, where's Zalewski and that droid of his....." There was an issue of an electrified scientist that had to be discussed.

***

Operation: Dying Mask
Zalewski: Corp Combat Hacker
Gunner Van Dyke: Sergeant Heavy Gunner
Pubentz: Lieutenant Combat Support
Ranger Van Dyke: Sergeant Combat Ranger
Pritchett: Corp Sniper

The squad landed outside the industrial complex. It was in the middle of nowhere, but large enough that anybody could tell this wasn't your simple farming compound. A large factory stood at the far end of the complex spewing smoke against an otherwise bright blue day.

There was no movement as the squad approached the complex, the security arm was down for approaching vehicles but there wasn't any movement. Gunner Van Dyke stepped into the security building and took a quick glance around. As expected, the office was deserted, and nothing threatening could be seen in the surrounding areas. She looked over to her brother. "Anybody home?"

He shook his head and continued further, inwards towards the factory. The factory in the middle billowing smoke seemed to be the only thing in the areas showing signs of life. This was their objective of course, to figure out exactly what was going on here.